Evaluation of the hydraulic performance of sewer systems presents a number of challenges. Sewer systems are not only hidden underground and difficult to access, but the hazardous conditions presented by toxic and corrosive gases inside these structures, and their massive size, limit the number of techniques available to evaluate hydraulic performance. Traditionally, sewer structures have been evaluated using sporadic visual surveys and anecdotal information. More recently, advances in electronics and sensors have lead to the availability of electronic monitors that are able to collect and transmit critical information such as flows, water levels, and water quality data. Wastewater utilities have taken advantage of these tools to study the performance of sewer systems.
Water monitors allow the user to log, and transmit in real time, hydraulic and water quality parameters that can be stored, such as in electronic databases or spreadsheets. Engineers, sewer system operators, wastewater managers and other sewer technicians analyze the data obtained from water monitors to determine hydraulic and hydrological performance of sewer systems. The analysis tools currently available make this task laborious and time consuming. These tools generally present the hydraulic and hydrological information as either time series or scatter graphs, as described as follows.
In a time series graph, data is presented in a graph that relates the parameters measured by the monitor versus a time axis. While several graphs can be super imposed, the user's ability to understand the way that the parameters relate to the physical infrastructure that is being monitored is limited.
In a scatter graph, a datum is presented as a point on a graph that relates one parameter versus another parameter. For example, a Manning's scatter graph relates the water level in a pipe with respect to the flow velocity. Frequently data from a period of time is presented as a collection of points in a graph. In a Manning's scatter graph sometimes a picture representing the diameter of the pipe is superimposed to illustrate the relationship of the water level to the diameter of the pipe. This system only allows the analysis of two parameters at a time and precludes the ability to incorporate a time reference to the data.
Time series and scatter graphs lack the ability to incorporate many variables into a single display and to have the display provide meaningful information about the physical layout of the sewer system. The analysis tool of the present invention overcomes these and other failings of the prior art.